Now that the Denver Broncos have benched Russell Wilson for the rest of the season in favor of backup Jarrett Stidham, it’s time to assess whether the quarterback has done enough during his NFL career to merit future induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
While Wilson’s career isn’t over, his best days are clearly behind him. Coming off a mostly brilliant 10-year stint in Seattle, which unfortunately came to a bitter end, Wilson’s last two seasons with the Broncos have been nothing short of a huge disappointment.
Given his 11-19 record in two seasons to go with the five-year, $245 million contract extension he signed, Wilson’s trade to Denver, which netted the Seattle Seahawks five draft picks and three players, is viewed as one of the NFL’s worst in recent memory.
Overall, however, there’s little doubt that Wilson, 35, has had a tremendous NFL career that includes nine Pro Bowl invitations and one Super Bowl title. But how great is it? Looking at his accomplishments, will he have a Hall of Fame induction speech to prepare in his future?
Here are five reasons why Russell Wilson will likely never be enshrined in Canton.
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1. Russell Wilson never received an NFL MVP vote.
The NFL Most Valuable Player has largely become a quarterback award in that seven of the past 10 winners were quarterbacks. At the same time, being named the NFL MVP might be the clearest sign of a player’s status among the game’s elite.
The problem is, Russell Wilson not only didn’t win an NFL MVP award during his career; he’s never even earned a single vote.
Instead, since he entered the league in 2012, Wilson has watched Peyton Manning win five of his seven MVP awards, followed by Aaron Rodgers with four, Tom Brady with three, Patrick Mahomes with two, and Matt Ryan, Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson with one each. And now Jackson is the favorite to win for the second time.
If you aren’t an MVP candidate, then how can you considered among the best at your position, when judged against your contemporaries or all-time?
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2. Russell Wilson was never named a first-team All-Pro.
If you don’t win the NFL MVP award, the next best regular-season honor for a quarterback is to be voted to the NFL All-Pro team. In most years, the NFL names a quarterback to its first and second All-Pro teams.
But Wilson was named a second-team All-Pro team one time, in 2019. Otherwise, during Wilson’s career, Rodgers received overall All-Pro honors four times (three as a first-teamer), Mahomes (two first-team selections) and Brady (one first-team selections) three times, and Manning twice (both as a first-team).
Meanwhile, Jackson, Newton and Ryan achieved first-team All-Pro status once each, while Drew Brees, Tony Romo, Carson Wentz, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts were one-time second-team All-Pros like Wilson.
In other words, Russell Wilson was never considered a top-two quarterback more than one time in his 12 NFL seasons.
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3. Russell Wilson wasn’t named Super Bowl MVP.
Russell Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to their one and only title at the end of the 2013 season, beating Manning and the Denver Broncos, 43-8, in Super Bowl XLVIII.
More often than not, the starting quarterback for the winning team is named the game’s MVP. Yet in Wilson’s title season, linebacker Malcolm Smith won the honor for having a pick-six, a fumble recovery and 10 tackles.
For his part, Wilson had a fantastic game, completing 18-of-25 passes for 206 yards and two touchdowns, but in the end Smith was deemed the game’s best player.
The following season Wilson had a second prime opportunity to earn the coveted MVP trophy against the New England Patriots, but he threw an interception to Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler at the goal line with 26 seconds left, and Brady walked away with the third of his five Super Bowl MVP trophies instead.
While leading a team to consecutive Super Bowl appearances would seem to strengthen Wilson’s Hall of Fame case, not earning a Super Bowl MVP trophy and throwing the most game-alerting interceptions in Super Bowl history doesn’t help his cause.
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4. Russell Wilson didn’t win an NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.
If a quarterback doesn’t earn an NFL MVP award or All-Pro status, the next best thing is to merit consideration for the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award, which usually goes to the best overall offensive player who doesn’t win the MVP.
Wilson not only didn’t win the award; he also never finished higher than third-place in the voting, which happened in 2015. He also finished fourth in both 2013 and 2019. At the same time, Brady, Brees and Manning won the award twice during Wilson’s career.
So, even though Wilson did enough to merit Pro Bowl invitations, he was rarely deemed a worthy candidate for any of the game’s highest honors.
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5. Russell Wilson is only the seventh-best QB of his generation.
Assessing all that Wilson did or didn’t achieve during his career, it’ll be tougher to place him any higher than seventh among the quarterbacks during his generation.
The other six quarterbacks ahead of him would be Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Mahomes, Brees, and eventually Jackson, especially if he leads the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl and ultimately wins his second NFL MVP honor.
For as great as Wilson was during his career, there’s no argument when comparing him to the six aforementioned quarterbacks, who all received more than accolades than Wilson did.
If Wilson is the only the seventh-best QB of his generation, then he’s likely have a long wait if he’ll ever be enshrined at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.